Lulu : Java Glossary

A self-publishing i.e. vanity,
press. You pay them to publish your book. However, unlike other vanity presses that
hand you a boxful of finished books to flog to your relatives, they will optionally
print and bind books one-off and drop ship them for you as you receive orders. This
means you don’t need to buy a large inventory of books that you may never sell.
You still have the costs of typesetting the book, editing, proofreading etc, but in
these days of electronic publishing, you can do much of this work yourself or
persuade skilled friends to volunteer their labour.

Other approaches you might consider for low-volume publishing are issuing books on
CD (Compact Disc),
DVD (Digital Video Disc), electronically downloaded, as spoken word in a number
of formats, or website subscription.

As always, the problem is getting your work out in front of the public. Electronic
publishing makes marketing your book no easier, with one possible exception. If your
book has a very narrow niche market, then describing it in detail on a webpage, then
asking all the search engines of the
world to index it, will help people looking for books on that topic find your book.
For a regional book, you are better to hit the bookstores of the region, in
person.

Lulu can also arrange an ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
for you as one of the many optional services they offer.